How Big Is 500 Square Feet? (With visuals)

Last updated on May 30th, 2022 at 01:34 pm

If you’re looking for a home or someone is trying to describe a space to you, you might have seen or heard 500 square feet used as an estimate for a room or area.

However, it can be difficult to know just how big 500 square feet is without anything to compare it to.

Acres

An acre is a good comparison for large areas because most people can roughly visualize the size of an acre.

An acre, however, is quite a bit bigger than 500 square feet. An acre is 43,560 square feet, so it’s about 87 times larger than 500 feet.

Bedrooms

The average size of a guest or kids’ bedroom is about 120 square feet. This means you would need a little more than four average bedrooms to make up 500 feet.

Master bedrooms, on the other hand, are usually about 240 square feet, although some are a bit larger. This means you would need to visualize about two master bedrooms to picture an area that’s just under 500 square feet.

You can also think about how big 500 square feet is in terms of the size of a king bed. A king bed is 6.33 feet wide and 6.66 feet long, for a total of about 42.2 square feet.

This means you would need just less than 12 king beds to cover an area of 500 square feet.

Football Fields

A football field is 360 feet long by 160 feet wide, giving it a total size of 57,600 square feet, which is even more than a single acre. This makes a football field about 115 times larger than 500 square feet.

You can also use other sports courts to compare to 500 square feet. For example, a regulation-size volleyball court is 60 feet long and 30 feet wide, for a total of 1,800 square feet. This means that you could fit about 3.6 500 square foot areas inside a single volleyball court.

A tennis court is 27 feet wide and 78 feet long, for a total size of 2,106 square feet. This means that a tennis court is about 4.2 times larger than 500 square feet.

Car Parking Spaces

Car parking spaces can vary a bit in size, but for the most part, they measure between 16 and 18 feet long and are between 8 and 9 feet wide, for an average size of 160 square feet.

This means that 500 square feet is just over 3 times larger than a single parking spot. If you’re standing in a parking lot, you can simply look at three parking spaces to visualize an area that’s just under 500 square feet.

You can also compare 500 square feet to a standard two-car garage. On average, a garage that’s designed to hold two vehicles is 20 feet wide and 24 feet long, giving it a total size of 480 square feet.

This is only 20 square feet smaller than 500 square feet, so picturing a regular two-car garage is one of the best ways to visualize 500 square feet.

You can also compare 500 square feet to a car itself. Although cars vary greatly in size depending on the make and model, an average car is about 14.7 feet long and 6 feet wide, which gives it a total footprint of about 88.2 square feet.

This means you would only need about five and a half cars, or five average cars and one small car, to make up 500 square feet.

Sheets of Plywood

Sheets of plywood can be found in various sizes, but in general, they’re 8 feet long and 4 feet wide, with an overall size of 32 square feet.

This is the versatile dimension for crafting structures, supporting walls and drywall, or cutting the boards down to make other objects out of them.

You would only need about 15 and a half sheets of plywood, spread out, to make up 500 square feet.

Tarps

Another common find at the hardware store is a tarp, which can be used to cover construction projects or outdoor materials in order to keep them clean and dry.

These tarps are also useful for helping to waterproof a tent, directing water away from the tent’s sides.

Tarps are available in a few sizes, but one of the most common sizes is a 10 foot by 10 foot square, giving the tarp a total of 100 square feet.

This is 1/5 the size of 500 square feet, so you would need five tarps to cover that much space.

Trampolines

You can purchase a trampoline in a few different sizes and shapes, but, on average, a backyard trampoline has an area of about 95 square feet, whether it’s round or rectangular.

This is just shy of 100, so you can determine that about 5 trampolines would be needed to cover an area of 500 square feet.

Stores

Stores can be seen in buildings of any size, depending on what the store sells. A small store selling a specialized item, such as a small bookstore or a boutique, is usually about 1,000 square feet, which is double 500 square feet.

Grocery stores are often around 10,000 square feet, so they’re 20 times larger than 500 square feet.

Large hardware stores can reach up to 20,000 square feet, making them 40 times larger than 500 square feet.